Close your eyes, take a deep breath and listen to the sounds around your L.A. neighborhood. You can hear the glorious roar of a leaf blower. And, ah yes, there’s the thrum of a police helicopter. Are those fireworks? Sounds like the Dodgers won. Though this city is many things, it’s not quiet. But unlike other major metropolitan areas, L.A. is blessed with several parks and mountain ranges. Within a quick drive, you can be alone on a trail in Angeles National Forest, or even just in a park far enough from the freeway to hear a bird’s song over the honking. At some point in your time here, you’ve probably surrounded yourself in nature when you needed some calm. But did you know that there’s a way to measure that peace and quiet? It’s all thanks to the nonprofit Quiet Parks International. The all-volunteer group’s mission is to protect quiet places. It does that, first, by conducting quiet studies at nominated parkland. After collecting that data, it awards public lands a handful of distinctions: …